"Abraham prayed, “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will You then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?
…Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will You destroy the whole city for lack of five?"
…Again he spoke to Him and said, "Suppose forty are found there."
…Then he said, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there." …He said, "Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there."
…Then he said, "Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.
He answered, "For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.'" - Genesis 18:24, 28-32
Abraham stood before God to intercede for the wicked city of Sodom, not for the sake of the guilty, whom he knew very well had to be destroyed, but for the sake of his nephew Lot, a righteous man, who also lived there.
He began by asking God to spare the city if He found fifty righteous people there; then, when the Lord granted that request, he reduced the number little by little until he could bring himself to ask God to spare the city for the sake of ten.
There is a principle of faith worth knowing here. I call it praying a “Faith-Sized Prayer.” We ask for what we have enough faith to believe God for. When He grants our prayer, our faith grows, and now we’re able to ask for something that feels bigger to us; something we weren’t able to believe Him for, before.
Abraham asked as his faith grew, and the Lord patiently let him keep asking as his faith was emboldened to match the need. God does this with us, too.
Learning to trust God is a process. Our confidence in prayer grows as we learn to trust His loving heart.
This is far more than something we can learn from a book; we learn in our own experience to trust in God as our loving Father, and our ability to trust Him with our needs grows as we see our prayers answered.
Lord, I know You are all-powerful, and that all authority is Yours in heaven and on earth. Give me a heart of faith; feed my heart of faith on Your Word. Enable me to trust You for the next need that I bring to You, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Pastor Dan Giles